Page:The Scientific Monthly vol. 3.djvu/442

 43* THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

on this plantation, as figures on these crops are not available for thia particular region.

��The following table gives the labor requirements on this plantation, distributed in terms of days of adult labor required per month, for 823 acres of cotton, 6S7 acres of com, and 200 acres of oats.

As an example, the operation of cutting atalka in cotton fields will serve to show how this distribution was made. Gutting stalks requires .13 man days per acre. On 823 acres this would amount to a total of 107 days. The period when, this work is done is from December 28 to February 4. On the basis of 13.6 days during December when field work is possible, there would be available 1.21 days for field work for the 3 days in December. There would be 12 days available for January and 1,7 days for the i days in February. The 107 days of adult labor required would have to be done in a period of the sum of these available days, or a total of 14.91 days. To do this would require the time of 7.17 adults. By assigning the days per month on the basis of the days avail- able per month for field work, there is obtained a requirement of 9 days of man labor in December, 86 in January and 12 in February for cutting stalks. The operations for all crops were figured in this manner.

The accompanying chart (see chart II.) illustrates the relation of malaria to crop production by comparing the available labor, the labor required for the crops, including the labor for boll-weevil control in cotton, with the time lost through malaria. It shows that malaria is a serious handicap to the plantation during the months of May, June, September and October. During these months the operations are culti- vating, hoeing, boll-weevil control and harvest. Maximum labor is re- quired during all of these periods. There is a total loss of 660 adult days through malaria, in excess of any surplus time, during these 4 months.

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